This application is a national phase application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/US2015/035048, filed Jun. 10, 2015, which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/027,518, filed Jul. 22, 2014, the entire contents of each of which applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to clamps, and more specifically, but not by way of limitation, to clamps with multiple failure modes configured to, for example, couple an umbilical line to a drilling riser.
2. Description of Related Art
Clamps are frequently used in the drilling industry, for example, to couple an umbilical to a drilling riser.
Risers are conduits used in offshore drilling operations that can transport materials (e.g., injection fluids, drilling mud, hydrocarbons, and/or the like) between a subsea well and a surface facility. Generally, umbilicals are used to connect a surface facility to a well-head (or associated components) to allow communication of electricity, hydraulic fluid, chemicals, choke/kill fluid, signals, and/or the like between the surface facility and the well. Typically, an umbilical is run alongside and is coupled to the drilling riser through the use of clamps.
A typical riser/umbilical system can experience various loads due to, for example, tension in the umbilical and/or riser, umbilical and/or riser weight, ocean currents, internal and/or external fluid pressures, and/or the like. These loads may be transmitted to the umbilical (e.g., through the clamps), which, in some instances, may result in damage to the umbilical. Damaged umbilicals can be costly and/or time consuming to repair or replace.
Examples of clamps are disclosed in U.S. Patents: (1) U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,502; (2) U.S. Pat. No. 6,726,166; (3) U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,177; and (4) U.S. Pat. No. 6,832,427. An additional example of a clamp is disclosed in French Patent No. 2 952 620.